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I'm trying to install FS2004 on my new laptop...


stvn

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...but there is one major problem: I have no disc player on my laptop.

(It seems many or most new laptops sold new these days don't have built-in cd/dvd drives anymore -which imo I think is pretty stupid btw)

 

Can I do this? Is there a way to simply copy the FS9 files from my desktop pc onto a huge flash drive, then transfer them onto my new laptop?

 

Something tells me the registry in my new laptop pc won't go along with that idea :(

 

I do have the original (in still perfect condition) MS FS2004 boxed disc version, so having a reg key to activate it isn't a problem, but I don't see how that is gonna do me any good now with my new laptop.

At this point that FS2004 disc is a now looking like a nice drink coaster...

 

EDIT:

 

Now, after reading the suggested posts at the bottom of the thread of my OP, I see this response to a somewhat similar question:

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?283231-Trying-to-install-FS2004-on-Windows-8-1&p=1940572#post1940572

Then I read the next reply afterwards, and I now got a sense of hope. That said, I'm not sure if I can pull it off.

 

Ironically this thread caught my attention because my new laptop is Windows 8.1 -which sure beats the heck out of W10 imo. My new W8.1 laptop doesn't come close to being as good as my old W7 laptop, but it's good enough -and no W10 bs to deal with!)

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my flight simming system: Windows 10 CyberPower PC i5 6600k 3.5 gHz, Gigabyte NVidia GTX 970 graphics, with FSX, FSXSE and P3D all installed side-by-side on a Crucial 525 SSD. Dual monitors, with a Saitek X52 joystick w/ rudder pedals for controls. It's all powered by a Thermaltake TR2 Gold 700W power supply sitting in a Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 case.

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First save any entries you may want later like aircraft and AFCADs etc to a folder and name it so you know what it is for later, then uninstall FS from your desktop.

Then put the flash drive in your desktop and do a fresh install of FS but direct it to the flash drive not the C: drive on your desktop.

 

I have run FS from a flash drive in the past on a laptop and it works fine, it will use the speed of you laptop and graphics to run, I have read where others do the same and got no problems.

 

Having said that someone will no doubt come on and tell you a better method but if not try the flash drive method I said, it will work.

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Or borrow an external hard drive from a friend, load all the flight sim stuff on it and copy it to your laptop. I have an external hard drive that I copied my fs software that saved me when something happened to my effects file and I was having the smoke effects blot out parts of planes. I copied the effects folder from the external hd back to the laptop and everything was fine. Also I ran the fs from the external hd.
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Hi,

 

I agree that an external CD/DVD drive would be the best solution, and may be needed for other programs anyway.

 

But if you want to try the flash drive solution, there is no need to do a reinstall for this, if desired.

 

1. If you have a copy of FS9 on your desktop computer, rename that folder temporarily (add temp to the folder name or something similar).

 

2. Install FS2004 to the flash drive. You must use Custom Install to do this. Install into something like X:\FS\FS2004 (not inside any Program Files folder). X: is the flash drive letter. This is the part I'm not sure about - if the installer requires certain folders to already be present on the drive. Might work, might not.

 

3. Now copy all the files onto the laptop, being careful to match the locations of any folders in the Users or Documents and Settings folders.

 

4. Use the Flight1 Registry Repair utility to point the registry to the location of FS9 on the laptop.

 

5. Rename the desktop copy back to its original folder name.

 

Hope this helps,

Tom Gibson

 

CalClassic Propliner Page: http://www.calclassic.com

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All of these suggestions are amazing.

I really appreciate all the input from everybody who got involved here with me on this in the past 24 hours :cool:

After reading all the replies, I am now much more confident on installing FS9 into my laptop.

 

It's also good to know that many of you have went down this path before.

 

And after reading this:

 

External drives are like $20 at Amazon.

 

, I now know I need to invest in a major external HD, and something a bit bigger than a 16 gig pocket flash drive.

A twenty dollar flash wont even come close to what I have in my main FS9 install, which is about 86 gB the last time I checked...

 

No biggie. I have many other important things that need backed up also. I should have bought a 3 or 4 tB external a long time ago, as in this day and age one can never have enough backup. Lesson learned.

 

Thanks again for the help everybody, you guys are the best!

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my flight simming system: Windows 10 CyberPower PC i5 6600k 3.5 gHz, Gigabyte NVidia GTX 970 graphics, with FSX, FSXSE and P3D all installed side-by-side on a Crucial 525 SSD. Dual monitors, with a Saitek X52 joystick w/ rudder pedals for controls. It's all powered by a Thermaltake TR2 Gold 700W power supply sitting in a Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 case.

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I was running FS on a laptop for a while then I also tried the flash drive method and an external HD, they all worked but remember it is your laptop's speed and memory that runs it.

If you have a decent laptop then you can have a few extras but if it is a moderate model then you will again be limited to what it can run.

 

Let us know how you get on with the install by the way good luck.

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Hi Guys,

A bit of a late comer here, but just my experience..

 

I have done this about 40 times so far.. (at the VA I belong to)

I take it you have a copy of FS9 on a laptop/PC.

So, just copy the whole FS9 folder onto a large flashdrive (16gb), if it will fit, or onto a portable drive. You now have a backup copy.

 

On your new laptop, just copy the FS9 folder from the portable media to the C:\ drive.

Use the Flight1 Registry Repair utility to point the registry to the location of FS9 on the laptop.

I'm taking it for granted that that you have updated the original FS9 with the service pack as well as the 'no cd' patch.

 

Go the the new FS9 folder on the new laptop & right click the fs9.exe & send it to the desktop.

Run the newly created shortcut. All should be good to go.

 

Oh, I use teracopy from http://www.codesector.com/teracopy for all my copying. It's faster than the default copy. I also use 'Everything' desktop search engine from http://www.voidtools.com to search for the fs9.cfg to add the

[OLDMODULES]

FSSound.dll=1 if I'm getting dll errors on startup.

 

Hope this all makes sense. I use this method to have 3x versions of FS9 on my laptop.

Remember to rename the folder & the exe before installing & running.

 

Best of luck,

Robin

Robin

Cape Town, South Africa

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  • 2 weeks later...

My apologies for getting back to you guys on this project, as some irl issues lately have taken up much of my time. Those are now resolved, and I finally got around to getting this move done.

 

And after reading and using the advice of everyone here, I have successfully installed my FS9 onto my new laptop.

 

How I ended up doing it:

I copied everything from the old laptop's 'C/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Games/Flight Simulator 9' folder (17.1 gB in size) onto a 64 gig flash drive, and reinstalled into my new laptop (The nice thing about that: I now have a good backup, if I ever need it again -no more messing around with the FS9 discs for installs!).

Now on my new laptop, I did not go into the default "C/Program Files (x86)".../.../.. file location, I created a new folder location/path: C/Microsoft Games/Flight Simulator 9' -the same thing I did for my FSX Steam: C/Steam/Steamapps/common/FSX.

 

(I wanted to avoid using the C/Program Files (x86) location for flight simming -or all gaming, for that matter.)

 

Once I was done will all of that, just for kicks, I wanted to see what happened once I clicked the FS9.EXE desktop shortcut.

Guess what? It fired right up, just as it did on my old laptop!

 

There was only one problem: I kept getting a black box where the airplane is supposed to be pictured at, in the 'Create a Flight' screen:

 

no aircraft showing fs9 selection.jpg

 

I then decided to run the Flight1 utility, to see if that helped. Nothing.

 

I tried to run with different graphics options, that didn't help either.

 

So, throwing caution to the wind, I installed a few addons. The first one, when upon installing, asked me if I wanted to overwrite some files. Cautiously, I said 'yes'.

I then re-open FS9, and now the planes appear in the selection window, and I have no idea on what I did right...:rolleyes::D

The sim runs just fine, and just as good as FSXSE does. I 'm a happy camper at this point :)

 

Anyways, thanks again for the help gents.

I certainly hope all the info in this thread can help someone else out in the future, as it did me.

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my flight simming system: Windows 10 CyberPower PC i5 6600k 3.5 gHz, Gigabyte NVidia GTX 970 graphics, with FSX, FSXSE and P3D all installed side-by-side on a Crucial 525 SSD. Dual monitors, with a Saitek X52 joystick w/ rudder pedals for controls. It's all powered by a Thermaltake TR2 Gold 700W power supply sitting in a Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 case.

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Go buy an external disc drive

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk

 

Yo, Samsung......we covered this already. Go back to my last post before now:

 

I copied everything from the old laptop's 'C/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Games/Flight Simulator 9' folder (17.1 gB in size) onto a 64 gig flash drive

 

No external HD necessary.

Besides that, it's painfully obvious that disc drives as we know them on all pc's are gonna be a thing of the past soon enough. I was simply too stubborn to admit to that fact -until now. Unfortunately for me it took a ten+ year old sim for me to realize it :rolleyes:

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

my flight simming system: Windows 10 CyberPower PC i5 6600k 3.5 gHz, Gigabyte NVidia GTX 970 graphics, with FSX, FSXSE and P3D all installed side-by-side on a Crucial 525 SSD. Dual monitors, with a Saitek X52 joystick w/ rudder pedals for controls. It's all powered by a Thermaltake TR2 Gold 700W power supply sitting in a Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 case.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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